Saturday, 1 September 2012

blessed be the man that spares these stones ...

credit: Jim Fess
After aged and learned I'd like to take a look at blessed. Again there're basically two pronunciations - /blest/ and /blesɪd, blesəd/. Here are some sample sentences/phrases for you to test yourself:
  1. he was blessed with rare talents;
  2. the Blessed Virgin Mary;
  3. there was blessed silence;
  4. blessed are the poor in spirit;
  5. the priest blessed the bread and wine;
  6. I can't see a blessed thing;
  7. Where's John? - I'm blessed if I know;
BTW: D'you happen to know where those four lines are to be found? It's an epitaph.
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3 comments:

  1. Kevin1 September 2012 at 23:14

    The four lines are above Shakespeare's burial place in Holy Trinity Church, Stratford upon Avon. (I had a head start on knowing that one as I went to the same school as Will; we weren't in the same year though.)

    Re sample no 7: the sequence of tenses is surely wrong. It should be: "Where's John? - I'm blessed if I know" or "Where was John? - I was blessed if I knew".

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  2. Kraut2 September 2012 at 09:39

    @Kevin: There's indeed a typo in #7. Thanks. Now corrected.

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  3. John Maidment3 September 2012 at 11:43

    In times gone by the monosyllabic pronunciation was often spelled "blest", so there was no problem about the pronunciation.

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